Introducing Little Red’s Schoolhouse!

We’d like to introduce you to a dynamic duo this Friday. Little Red’s Schoolhouse is a fantastic store created by two Canadian sisters. Following the footsteps of their parents, Kristin and her sister, Katie, are teaching, but have some things they are very passionate about.

The sisters are currently teaching ESL in South Korea. What an adventure! Kristin is teaching at an English library. And when he is not teaching, she is writing. Typically Kristin writes things for children such as textbook series or storybooks. Her sister is also a part-time teacher, but her calling is illustrations. These two make up a fantastic team.

It was only natural that they start a store together. Little Red’s Schoolhouse is still in its infancy (only a little over two weeks old), but you would never know it by looking at their products. Since these lovely ladies have experience with publishing, they know how to pay attention to detail and create professional looking materials.

We spoke with Kristin, who loves the “Eureka!” moment students have when everything comes into clear view. Being a writer, she also enjoys helping students discover their writing voice. She loves that when they find this voice, their creativity and enthusiasm soar.

Having experienced education in Korea, Kristin hopes for a day where less pressure is put on students to succeed in school. To clarify, she does want them to succeed, but not to the point where they don’t get a chance to eat or sleep. Due to the competition in the South Korean schools, students are forced to go to multiple after-school academies. She tells us that even elementary students work with tutors or in classrooms until 9pm. This is certainly something that needs some consideration.

Kristin loves teaching history. She recently read a Magic Tree House book about the Civil War with her weekend book club class. The students had a great time learning about the events and people of the past. Kristin strives to show the students as many authentic documents or objects as possible when teaching. It’s funny how sometimes students don’t even realize that some of what they are learning about actually happened at one time.

We will be delving into a Halloween item from Little Red’s Schoolhouse, but Kristin’s favorite item is a lesson packet for “The Star Lady” by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. She decided to create a packet for this short story because it was very sweet, but also very informative. The book teaches about Betsy Ross, the American Revolution, George Washington, life during Colonial times, and even more. This is definitely an item worth checking out. You can see a description on their blog, just click the picture below.

And just for fun… we asked Kristin to describe her life in a six word sentence: “Always looking forward, never looking backward.”

This activity pack is jammed full of activities. You will find:-A teacher’s guide-Original story with discussion questions-Vocabulary worksheets for story-Reading Comprehension worksheet for story-Making sentences worksheet for story-Word Scramble for story-Fill in the Blanks worksheet for story-Quotation Marks practice for story-Crossword Puzzle for story-Consonant Blends worksheet-Syllables worksheet-Alphabetical order worksheet-Identifying Vocabulary Cut and Paste-Word Search-Creative writing exercise-Jack-o’-lantern craft activity-Classroom Halloween party ideas for the teacher-Halloween flashcards-Halloween coloring pages-Answer key

Like we said, jammed full of activities! Obviously we can’t write about everything (this post is already a bit lengthy), so we will settle for the first third.

We think pictures will do more justice for these ladies’ work than our descriptions, so here are a few shots of what is included for you.

As you can see, these sheets look very professional and they are definitely a great learning tool. If you would like to hear about any other parts of the packet in more detail, let us know in the comments and we will answer you this weekend!

We’ve been boo-ed a few times from some of our great bloggy friends, and we aren’t ignoring you! We’re just trying to keep those rules straight and find some new friends to boo 🙂